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Living in the crosshairs of COVID-19
John Power | September 14, 2020It’s not a particularly pleasant prospect to die from COVID-19 – but John Power will soon face State and Commonwealth decisions that may cost him his life.
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Batch testing and contact tracing can stop the lockdown yo-yo
Richard Holden | September 13, 2020Yo-yoing lockdowns are costly and to be avoided if at all possible. Here is what we can do to dramatically improve testing and tracing.
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Better ways to manage quarantine
Marika Vicziany | September 7, 2020“He shall be unclean as long as the disease is on him. Being unclean, he shall dwell apart; his dwelling shall be outside the camp.” – The Book of Leviticus 13-14
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Designing better quarantine
Holly Seale | September 1, 2020It’s easy to judge people who escape from quarantine as not doing their bit. But if we use some basic principles from behavioural science, we might stop people wanting to escape in the first place.
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Assuaging religious fears over COVID vaccines
Holly Seale | August 28, 2020Church leaders have raised concerns over a COVID-19 vaccine produced using cells derived from aborted foetuses. But the Vatican has already ruled such vaccines ‘morally separate’ from the abortions.
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The difficult road to a COVID vaccine
Open Forum | August 17, 2020Real leadership will be needed to help bring Covid-19 under control in the countries where it is still running rampant and, if and when a vaccine is developed, leadership will also be needed to ensure it gets to those who need it most.
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Was Sweden right to eschew COVID lockdowns?
Andreas Ortmann | August 7, 2020A full accounting of how Sweden’s non-lockdown approach to COVID-19 has fared compared to other country’s will take time, and will involve trading off health, economic, educational and other outcomes.
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Why Melbourne’s business restrictions should work
Philip Russo | August 4, 2020By clamping down on personal interactions, the sweeping new business restrictions in Melbourne should reduce the number of community infections to more manageable numbers within the next few weeks.
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Victoria’s ‘state of disaster’
Adrian Esterman | August 3, 2020Premier Dan Andrews declared a state of disaster from 6pm on Sunday in Victoria, imposing a nightly curfew on Melbourne and giving the government and police extra powers to enforce the new restrictions to slow the spread of COVID-19.
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The COVID crisis in aged care shows elimination is the only strategy
Richard Holden | July 31, 2020The evidence is in and the answer is clear. We must try and eliminate COVID-19 for the health and economic benefit of Australians of all ages.
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Victoria’s privatised quarantine arrangements were destined to fail
Richard Holden | July 27, 2020Victoria’s second wave of COVID-19 cases can be traced back to poor security at quarantine hotels. Economics tells us that governments privatising services where quality counts is a bad idea.
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Obesity remains a risk for COVID-19
Open Forum | July 18, 2020The risk of more severe symptoms from COVID-19 and the likelihood of death is higher in people who are obese, regardless of their age, according to a study to be published in the European Journal of Endocrinology.